Professional development requirements
To maintain accreditation, teachers need to participate in professional development. Here is what you need to know about your professional development requirements.
Your professional development requirements have changed
Effective from 16 August 2024 the professional development (PD) requirements for teachers maintaining Proficient, Highly Accomplished and Lead Teacher accreditation have been changed.
NESA has removed the Accredited and Elective PD categories to give teachers more flexibility in completing their required 100 hours of PD.
NESA is currently re-developing eTAMS to reflect these changes. You can continue to log PD in eTAMS or offline and submit your maintenance of accreditation when due and once you complete 100 hours of PD. All PD activities already logged will count towards your required PD hours.
Find out more about these changes and watch our video for more information.
Maintaining accreditation with professional development
Completing professional development (PD) helps teachers keep up to date with relevant content, skills and pedagogy. It supports teachers’ professional growth and improved student/child outcomes.
To maintain accreditation, you must take part in ongoing PD related to the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (the Standards). Teachers accredited at Proficient, Highly Accomplished or Lead Teacher have the same requirements and must complete 100 hours of PD in each maintenance period.
Professional development
The NESA Professional Development Framework (the Framework) has been developed to help you to select and engage in effective professional development activities that best suit your professional needs and individual context.
Professional development is any activity where you learn new skills or practices that are related to the Standards. Roles and responsibilities that are part of your duties as a teacher are not counted as PD.
For example, you cannot record:
- programming and planning
- administrative staff meetings
- event coordination and excursions
- writing student/child reports
- marking and moderating
- extra-curricular commitments or planning
- coaching or leadership of student/child initiatives
- creation of, or collaboration on individual learning plans
- parent/carer-teacher interviews and meetings
- trade union training
- courses unrelated to teaching or curriculum.
Recording your PD
You must keep a record of your PD activities for 12 months after you have submitted your maintenance, in case of an audit. This can be recorded in your online NESA account (eTAMS) or a personal record. You can use our optional personal PD log template (PDF 318.07KB).
In your PD log, you must record the following required information:
- date of PD activity
- PD activity type
- name of PD activity
- Standard(s) addressed
- duration of the activity
- provider name (if applicable)
- priority area (if applicable).
Find a professional development course
NESA delivers a range of courses to support teachers. Teachers can explore PD and other professional development courses on NESA Learning.
NESA has created a list of recognised PD providers who have at least one active course that relates to the Standards.
Employers are responsible for ensuring their teachers have access to PD. Refer to your employer for more information on accessing relevant PD.